Thich Nhat Hanh Healing in Vietnam The Wonderful World of Gathas

In Memoriam:in MEMORIAMThay Giac Thanh1947-2001Last fall marked the fifth anniversary of the passing of Thay Giac Thanh, the beloved formerabbot of Deer Park Monastery. In his honor a beautiful stupa was built above Solidity Hamlet,and a ceremony of dedication brought together many of those who had known and loved thegentle monk. In this special section we feature several of Thay Giac Thanh’s poems fromScattered Memories, the complete collection of his poems published in 2006 by ParallaxPress and excerpted here with permission.Thay Giac Thanh was born in a quiet and remote hamlet in RachGia Province in southern Vietnam. Eventually his family moved toRach Gia City where he learned to read and write and became anexcellent student. Thay Giac Thanh expressed love for his countryin his first poem, “Tears for my Homeland,” written when he wasin the twelfth grade.He became a novice monk in 1967 at Thanh Hoa Temple inLong Xuyen Province, where he received his Dharma name GiacThanh (Awakening Sound) from his teacher, Venerable Pho Hue;in 1970 he was fully ordained in Giac Vien Temple. In 1971, heattended the University of Van Hanh in Saigon (co-founded byThich Nhat Hanh several years before) to further his studies inBuddhism.Although he was not a permanent resident there, Thay GiacThanh spent several peaceful years at True Emptiness Monasteryon the peak of Tao Phung Mountain. But all that changed in 1975when the Communists took over all of Vietnam. Everybody nowhad to work hard in the fields under the hot, burning sun.In July of 1981, he escaped out of Vietnam by boat, crossingthe Gulf of Thailand. Like many other Vietnamese people enduringdangerous escapes, he was not able to avoid pirates. Seeing thecruel raping of women and grabbing of jewelry, angrily he asked,“Do you have a heart? How could you be so cruel to your fellowhumans?” The pirates were angry and threw him into the ocean.Fortunately, the head pirate, in a flash of sympathy, tossed him arope and pulled him up onto the boat.After many months in a refugee camp in Indonesia, ThayGiac Thanh was sponsored by Venerable Thich Man Biac to cometo Los Angeles. During Thay’s brief stay at Phat Biao VietnamTemple, like a tender and caring mother the Venerable helped healthe wounds in the wanderer’s heart. In 1982, at the Venerable’srequest, Thay moved to Nam Tuyen Temple in Virginia to helpThay Tri Tue; they lived happily together until 1989.In 1986 he met Thich Nhat Hanh at one of his North Americanretreats; in 1990 Thay Giac Thanh attended the summer retreatat Plum Village and in 1991 began residing there. At the end of1991, he received the Lamp Transmission to become a DharmaTeacher, for which he wrote the poem “Formless Samadhi.” ThichNhat Hanh offered him a small wooden hut on the forest edgebeside his own. There was a vast space in his heart; he walkedfreely and solidly, and his smiles and words carried a profoundpeace to people around him. Wherever he went — France, theU.S., Australia, Canada — from the beginning of his teaching tohis last breath, all of us received his tender, fresh, and peacefulenergy. He was respected and deeply loved by all of us.Thay Giac Thanh contracted tuberculosis in 1995 and his diabetesworsened. He took care of his illnesses like a mother lovingher child, never complaining no matter how demanding the childwas. In 1997 Thay Giac Thanh became Head of Practice at MapleForest Monastery in Vermont, and in 2000 he became abbot of thenew monastery in southern California. He knew that this placewould be the last one of his life. He arrived at Deer Park Monasteryin the summer of 2000 and left us in the autumn of 2001. A kind,gentle, and loving voice, a joyful smile until the end of his life, adeep and clear wisdom, great compassion, and peaceful steps, allrevealed his profound understanding of no-coming, no-going.The day before he died, he received a telephone call from histeacher in Beijing, China. Thich Nhat Hanh read him a poem hehad just written, and added the second stanza later:That you are a real gentleman is known by everyoneThe work of a true practitioner has been accomplishedWhen your stupa has just been raised on the hillsideThe sound of children’s laughter will already be heardOne maple leaf has fallen down and yet you continue toclimbThe hill of the twenty-first century with usThousands of daffodils are beginning to bloom and theEarth continues to be with the skySinging the song of no-birth and no-deathAdapted from “Biography of the Author”by Thich Puoch Tinh in Scattered Memoriesthe Mindfulness Bell 31